He was definitely upset…tried to tell Detroit in 2018 when he was with them, but the Tigers wouldn’t bite on it. Went to Oakland and they saw an opportunity to hurt their division rival that was going to dominate for awhile. My guess is Beane got wind of it, passed it on to his Boston folks who gave it to Drellich as well as Rosenthal and it went from there. I think MLB would have ignored it, but my guess is 1) tons of baseball higher-ups were upset with Luhnow and wanted him gone…and the staffer yelling at Footer in the locker room only increased that feeling, and 2) I have a sneaking suspicion that FOX/ESPN got involved after a very low rated 2019 World Series and the fear of constantly having the Astros knocking out their favorites. Don’t forget that we started hearing about the Astros potentially stealing signs well before the report came out as ARod kept bringing it up. Combine both together and Manfred did something rash instead of being smart about it…but…that seems to be his style. Awful commissioner…which is saying something considering folks wanted to like him after Selig’s reign.
Fiers tried to tell people for a while after '17, nobody cared. Fiers had an axe to grind with the Stros, but whatever. It really started here: Baseball writers are a closeknit bunch. Then Taubman Indecent made the media really care (and Drellich having his own issues with the team, however/whenever that happened). That's it. It otherwise would have died quietly.
That DFP story really is the most self-righteous meaningless piece of investigative drivel I've read in awhile. Considering all that's gone on in the world since then, and all the more serious issues both in the world (and baseball), to spend that much effort on a piece that in the grand scheme of things goes absolutely nowhere... Baseball writers no longer have a role in this day/age of social media. There no longer needs to be a middle-man. They no longer have exclusive access. And the more they push back or try and re-invent their importance, the more they seem like a group that is marked for extinction in a game sorely needing new fans, new life, new energy, less "old". They pushed back on anaylitics... till the benefit became overwhelmingly obvious. They tip-toed around the steroid era and ultimately chose to embrace it. They tip-toed around technology use... till they found an obvious scapegoat coming from a source (who's motives still remain at large). I think baseball writers are part of the problem of what's holding the game back. You don't have the same sort of faction-teamster-like union in the other sports.
